Referring now to FIG. 1, some fiber laser systems 19 include a laser diode driver 25 controlling the current into a laser diode 26, which outputs photons of a particular wavelength in response to the electrical current applied to the laser diode 26. The laser system 19 may also include and wavelength conversion optics 27 that output a different wavelength of photons in response to input photons of a certain wavelength. The laser system 19 may include other components such as circuitry (not shown) for output power calibration.
The laser system 19 may be controlled by an external application controller 11, which may be any customer equipment to control the laser system 19 (e.g., a beam positioning system, laser scanner system, logic controller, a networked computer, etc.). The external application controller 11 may command the laser system 19 to output particular magnitudes of laser output power at precise times. At a given time, the application controller 11 may select a single command 21 of a set of supported commands 28 of the laser diode driver 25. The laser diode driver 25 controls current based on the single command 21, which causes the laser system 19 to generate the laser output 29.